That was a "hoax", right?

Some people have difficultly with the whole "girlfriend/boyfriend" thing. Some people think someone is their girlfriend/boyfriend when the other person doesn't even think it.

Imagine you're 20 years old again, part of a football team and all your friends are talking about their girlfriends and the girls they're chasing. You want to belong so you talk about your online relationship with a girl and refer to her as your girlfriend. It starts there and spirals out of control, as you lie to make the relationship seem deeper to your friends.

You believe you have a connection. Then she dies due to a cancer battle. The national media wants to humanize you for their news stories. You explain what happened to your girlfriend. The media becomes immediately interested. You feed them their interest and the lie spirals more and more out of control until you learn it was all a hoax. Then you just pray no one finds out, try not to act weird. But they do find out, and now we're here.

I can see it, young kid lies or exaggerates the truth, and then makes more lies and exaggerations to make up for it. Te'o's not an innocent in this narrative but he's at least not a clear villain and his motives are understandable.

why would anyone want to admit having a girlfriend on the internet to look cool. just makes yourself sound like a dweeb... at least in my opinion

You can't expect everyone on the team to be "comfortable" with that. I'm sure on the outside, they'd be all polite about it but there will be those who would just....not be comfortable and that's all I can say about it.

It's a hypothetical situation anyway. It might happen down the road....but I doubt it happens now.

imagine how homophobic running backs would fare against Teo. they'd be too afraid to run in between the tackles and go up the hole.

Tyler Morehead, Notre Dame Campus Rep, was the author of the article I posted here this afternoon. In it he explains that Manti's teammates, and many students on the campus, knew Lennay Kekua was not a real girl friend. Knew Te'o was having relationships with other women on campus. Knew he barely met this woman. Knew he was sinking himself into a deeper mess of lies and entanglements, as he kept responding to the extensive media coverage, embellishing the hoax, describing Lennay as "the love of his life"...and on and on and on it went. They knew his actions were fueled by Heisman ambitions.

The sports world suffered a twitter-breaking case of shock and awe today with Deadspin’s piece detailing what appears to be the phony story concocted about the late girlfriend of Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o. While the American public and the media sure felt duped, one of Te’o’s teammates wasn’t surprised, telling PepperOnSports.com that the players on the Fighting Irish football team smelled something fishy back in September 2012.

The Notre Dame football player, who asked for anonymity, told Pepper On Sports, “No we all knew he had only seen her once. But when the media was saying how he went through both deaths we knew,” said the source, referring to the back-to-back deaths of Te’o’s grandmother and girlfriend Lennay Kekua, who allegedly died of Leukemia.

In defense of the Heisman Trophy candidate, the source said he believes the lie may have indeed started with somebody duping Te’o using a phony twitter account, and eventually, faking their own death.

Early in my conversation with the source, the Notre Dame player said, “He lied, but the media blew it up.” In response to my follow-up question asking if the source thought that Te’o kept the story going because of the media attention, the player replied, “Yeah. Right after the Michigan [State] game. He should have never brought her in the media. His grandma passing was enough.”

Notre Dame’s victory over Michigan State and subsequent media explosion appears to have been the turning point for the source and many of his teammates.

The source said while the players discussed their suspicions amongst themselves, they never confronted Te’o.

“We would never bring it up. But we would look at him when he would get all emotional during media about his girl,” the player said.

When asked if he thought Te’o was a good actor, the player replied, “Very good.”

IMO...if the student campus knew...then to at least some extant, ND coaches and officials had to know what was going on too. So maybe their own ambitions for a National Championship...with Te'o a Heisman Trophy winner, was seen by them as a very effective symbol...of ND's football program return to Division 1A prominence again.

All in all...this isn't just a damaging blow to the character and image of Manti Te'o. But to the ND football program as well. Nobody stopped this. And I don't think it was because nobody knew.

Te'o teammates knew...many on the campus knew...IMO the ND football program knew. And now ND is using its own media and other assets, to minimize the damage that Te'o and his dead girl friend hoax has caused.

Tyler Morehead, Notre Dame Campus Rep, was the author of the article I posted here this afternoon. In it he explains that Manti's teammates, and many students on the campus, knew Lennay Kekua was not a real girl friend. Knew Te'o was having relationships with other women on campus. Knew he barely met this woman. Knew he was sinking himself into a deeper mess of lies and entanglements, as he kept responding to the extensive media coverage, embellishing the hoax, describing Lennay as "the love of his life"...and on and on and on it went. They knew his actions were fueled by Heisman ambitions.

The sports world suffered a twitter-breaking case of shock and awe today with Deadspin’s piece detailing what appears to be the phony story concocted about the late girlfriend of Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o. While the American public and the media sure felt duped, one of Te’o’s teammates wasn’t surprised, telling PepperOnSports.com that the players on the Fighting Irish football team smelled something fishy back in September 2012.

The Notre Dame football player, who asked for anonymity, told Pepper On Sports, “No we all knew he had only seen her once. But when the media was saying how he went through both deaths we knew,” said the source, referring to the back-to-back deaths of Te’o’s grandmother and girlfriend Lennay Kekua, who allegedly died of Leukemia.

In defense of the Heisman Trophy candidate, the source said he believes the lie may have indeed started with somebody duping Te’o using a phony twitter account, and eventually, faking their own death.

Early in my conversation with the source, the Notre Dame player said, “He lied, but the media blew it up.” In response to my follow-up question asking if the source thought that Te’o kept the story going because of the media attention, the player replied, “Yeah. Right after the Michigan [State] game. He should have never brought her in the media. His grandma passing was enough.”

Notre Dame’s victory over Michigan State and subsequent media explosion appears to have been the turning point for the source and many of his teammates.

The source said while the players discussed their suspicions amongst themselves, they never confronted Te’o.

“We would never bring it up. But we would look at him when he would get all emotional during media about his girl,” the player said.

When asked if he thought Te’o was a good actor, the player replied, “Very good.”

IMO...if the student campus knew...then to at least some extant, ND coaches and officials had to know what was going on too. So maybe their own ambitions for a National Championship...with Te'o a Heisman Trophy winner, was seen by them as a very effective symbol...of ND's football program return to Division 1A prominence again.

All in all...this isn't just a damaging blow to the character and image of Manti Te'o. But to the ND football program as well. Nobody stopped this. And I don't think it was because nobody knew.

Te'o teammates knew...many on the campus knew...IMO the ND football program knew. And now ND is using its own media and other assets, to minimize the damage that Te'o and his dead girl friend hoax has caused.

I don't think they covered it up/perpetuated it because it kept the team motivated, I think they did so because they knew it would be a huge distraction if it did come out.

An article in today's NYT shows that even after the date he learned of the hoax, he continued to keep the story of his *dead girlfriend* in play. Check out the first 3 paragraphs:

"On Dec. 6, Notre Dame officials said, Manti Te’o received an alarming phone call: his dead girlfriend, whose loss had inspired him during what had become a triumphant year for the Fighting Irish, might still be alive. Either that or Te’o, a gifted linebacker with a reputation for trusting others, had been the victim of a hoax, and the woman he thought he had come to know online and through long, emotional phone calls had never really existed.

"Te’o, a Notre Dame official said this week, was badly shaken by the call.

"Nonetheless, two days later, on Dec. 8 at the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Te’o was asked about his most unforgettable moment of the season. Te’o, clearly aware of questions surrounding his girlfriend’s death, responded with little hesitation: the memory he would never forget from the 2012 season was the moment he learned his girlfriend was dead".

Think about it. He could have answered that question in any number of ways, yet chose to mention the girlfriend, even when he knew it was all a hoax.